Have you been dreaming of going away on the most perfect trip ever?

A lot of people have recently been asked to stay home to save lives – some might think that they are stuck at home but this time is so important for the success of our future.

This time is the perfect time to plan and save for your future travels. Try not to think of everything that you are “missing out on”, but rather think of this time as preparation for a brilliant adventure in the future, you might end up having a holiday in Portugal with your kids, or you might decide to go to Scotland in the UK for a bit of peace and quiet.

One day soon we will all be able to travel like normal, and you’ll be pleased that you managed to save up a few pennies now in order to have the perfect holiday!

Saving money for your future travels doesn’t have to be hard, in fact, it can be a lot of fun (if you want it to be).

Doesn’t matter if you are planning something long-term or just a weekend away to a nearby holiday park or a favourite hotel, here are a few tips that you can follow to help you save up for that dream trip you’ve been wanting to go on.

Doesn’t matter if this was a dream trip pre-pandemic or just because you want something to look forward to once this is all over, these tips should help!

Step 1: Set Up a Dedicated Savings Account

This step is really important, and probably the most useful.

If you have any plans on going away and want to make sure that you have enough money in the bank, then you should look to setting up a dedicated savings account.

The reason behind this is so simple, and it’s something which sounds slightly silly, but having two separate accounts – one for your everyday outgoings, and the other for your future travels, will help you not spend it.

Remember that saying “out of sight, out of mind”? Well this is why having a separate account will help you not want to spend the money – it will help you avoid the temptation of dipping into your travel fund for non-travel expenditures.

It doesn’t matter how much, or how little, you put in this account either. All that really matters is that you start putting money into this savings account as soon as you can.

For example, if you can afford to put in £50 per months, then in a years time you’ll have saved up £600 easily. This is perfect for a weekend getaway, and sometimes just having a couple of days in a completely new area (even if it’s an hour up the road), can create the perfect trip.

Just imagine how much more you could save up if you put £100 into your savings account or even £200.

As a side note – doing this is also a great way to save up money for other things, a house, new furniture, even just as a little bit of reassurance that if something breaks in your home like your boiler that you can easily get it fixed.

Step 2: Figure Out When You Want To Go

So with a pandemic going on, it can be quite hard to figure out when you would like to go. I also don’t think that people should be looking at travelling anywhere during a pandemic. Travel should have been banned the moment things started going south in hindsight.

But here we are.

So let’s pretend that we can go places – how long do you normally plan going on a trip or do you prefer a bit of spontaneity?

Are you looking for a romantic weekend away with your partner, or are you more interested in finding the best UK places to take your toddler with you on holiday? You need to figure out what sort of holiday you are after first to help you when it comes to saving up.

If you are someone who likes to give plenty of time to plan for things, then deciding on when you want to travel is a key point to knowing how much money you will actually need.

There are two reasons for planning when you are actually going to go. The first, is that depending on the season, your trip might be cheaper if you go during the less busy seasons. Prices are cheaper, and you won’t have to worry about being surrounded by young children.

You’ll also want to look at when it’s the best time of year to visit a particular country. For example, some countries have monsoon seasons, and you definitely don’t want to be planning on exploring during that time.

Again, the best tip I can give you is just start saving as soon as you can – you’d be surprised how much you can save if you put your mind to it!

Step 3: Decide Where You Will Be Travelling

Understandably, the location of your travels is going to play a massive part in how much you need to save for. You’ll have to consider all the costs that come with going to places.

These costs include the actual travel (e.g. fuel price, plane tickets etc.), then you’ve got the accommodation price, food, events, insurance… the prices can really add up if you don’t plan things properly.

Deciding where you want to travel will also help you figure out when you want to travel as well – for example are you happy paying more to go somewhere because it’s a touristy place.

If you decide that you want to go to somewhere like Blackpool as a family, then you can start figuring out what you want to do there, how much you’ll need to save etc, and it can make things a lot easier for you!

Once you have a good idea of when and where you want to travel to, you’ll know exactly how much you’ll need to save. Of course, if you are the sort of person who likes going away for random weekends then you won’t know exactly how much you need to save up.

But you can still save up – whatever you can afford to put in your separate saving account will work. How nice would it be, to know that if for whatever reason you just want to get away from your normal world, you can just look at whatever you’ve saved in your saving account and treat yourself to an amazing weekend away.

Step 4: Automate Your Savings

Remember the “be disciplined” part? Well, automatic payments, or standing orders, will help you be disciplined and stick to your travel savings goal. Try to align the standing orders with your income when you set them up. Save first. Spend later. 

The good part is that you have already figured out how much you need to save in order to go on your dream holiday, and trust me when I say – every little really does help.

I recently found out, that at the place where my sister works, her work colleagues bin coins that are under 50p – how unbelievable is that? You can save so much money by saving those smaller coins before you even realise it.

Most of the time I pay online, and I don’t normally have cash on me. But my bank has a great automatic feature where it will round up every transaction. A penny here and there, well it all adds up and am I really going to notice 20p being put in my saving account?

I think it’s a great way to slowly save up money, and I don’t even need to worry about will I be able to afford this. Spending something like £1.99, and saving a penny every time, or even something like £1.79 has helped me save over a hundred pounds without even thinking about.

Step 5: Enjoy Yourself

Life isn’t always going to be doom and gloom, and you shouldn’t have to be constantly saving the entire time. You should look at enjoying yourself by rewarding yourself at each milestone.

It doesn’t have to be a big reward (and you shouldn’t take money out of your travel saving account), but it could be something simple like going out for a beer with your mates (when safe to do so of course), or something that you know you’ll enjoy.

You need to celebrate the small wins in life such as reaching a particular target for your travel saving account. You might find that you are so good at saving though, that you increase how much money you want to save as well!

Rewarding yourself also makes the process more real, keeping you engaged as you save for your trip.

There’s just something so nice about knowing that you are aiming for something, be it a house, car or an adventure, and once you achieve that goal well you should definitely feel proud!

I cannot wait for more adventures, but for now you’ll find me planning and saving up for when things are completely safe. Although I would love to go somewhere new, I’m using this time wisely to save up and treat myself to an amazing holiday!

What about you guys? Any tips for people who are trying to save up for something that I might have missed?

I’d also love to know what your plans are for the future? Dreaming of travelling somewhere special, then let me know in the comments 😀